Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to methods for compressing fibrous materials into rectangular bales. The invention has particular application to agricultural uses such as the compaction of hay or the like into relatively large size and substantially rectangular bales, but also industrial utility for the compaction of other fibrous materials. The compaction technique is of the type in which layers of fibrous material are deposited in a bale forming chamber in continuous folded-like and substantially parallel arrangement. The deposition and compaction of the subsequent folded-like layers is accomplished in a continuous process in which a bale forming chamber and a feeder-compactor mechanism perform a reversing-oscillating motion relative to each other imposing the necessary forces and displacement on the fibrous material to form rectangular bales with sufficiantly high density.